A wand of random effects creates an unpredictable effect when zapped. There is a high probability of yielding a damaging or at least harmful effect, but its use in combat is risky. Although you might wind up blasting an enemy for heavy damage, you must decide if it's worth the risk of rendering your opponent invisible or hasted instead. Each of the effects has an equal chance of being selected.

Tips & Tricks

Be strategic when using the wand. Plan the encounter so that you can use the wand at the farthest possible distance, giving you multiple shots on target; even if one shot is beneficial to the target, the next 3 might be sufficient to finish it off. If the monster is susceptible and you have a net or the ability to paralyze, petrify, confuse, or slow, use that first to give you even more opportunities for a kill shot.

Have an escape route planned in case the target does become invisible or hasted. Keep in mind that the invisibility/haste effect is temporary: retreating and returning after the buff wears off is always an option.

Using the wand against an adjacent monster is almost never a good idea, given that the fireball and iceblast effects will greatly harm you as well. For the same reason, always be aware of any potentially adjacent invisible creatures (eg, a newly invisible orc wizard).

History

It was completely reworked in 0.20 to the present list of effects, minus malmutate.

Some wands were removed in 0.18, though the wand of random effects kept a few of the removed ones. As a result the chance to deal direct damage with a wand of random effects dropped by about 11%. Digging was also removed at this time.

Prior to 0.14, gods would forgive the player for disliked effects produced by evoking an already identified wand of random effects.